Article excerpt

BY almost any measure, tensions between the United States and
Japan remain high. Yet US Vice President Dan Quayle insists that
the relationship between the world's two largest economies is
strong and improving.

In an address to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations
here this week, the vice president termed the two nations "the
closest of allies" and chastised America-bashers in Japan and
Japan-bashers in this country for hurling "degrading insults" at
one another.

He said that intensive trade negotiations with Tokyo have paid
off in reduced trade barriers and a rise in US exports.

Quayle will put the same case directly to Japanese officials on
a four-day trip to Tokyo beginning May 12. The occasion is the 20th
anniversary of the return of US-occupied Okinawa to the Japanese
government. Quayle will be the first high-level administration
visitor since President Bush flew to Tokyo with top US auto leaders
last January.

The May trip may not offset past damage or result in any basic
policy redirection, but it is very important in the context of the
poor state of US-Japanese relations, says Daniel Unger, an
assistant professor of government and East Asian expert at
Georgetown University.

"Quayle is someone who can clearly say, 'Yes, we have problems
but we also have interests in common,' " Professor Unger says.
"That's something I think Bush really is not allowed {politically}
to say at this stage."

"I think the trip is tremendously important because it appeals
to the sense of partnership {in Japan} that's compatible with some
degree of a greater national consciousness," says Kent Calder,
director of the US-Japan program at Princeton University.

"I think the Japanese have felt that we have not been
reciprocating for the huge contributions they made in the Gulf war.
We should definitely send a major figure in the light of what
happened during the visit last January."

In a meeting with a dozen reporters after his council speech,
Quayle stressed Japan's global contributions, including its payment
of 72 percent of the non-salary cost of supporting US troops
stationed in Japan. …